Surface Detailis the newest Culture book by Iain M. Banks, but it’s got the usual elements that all Culture books tend to have…

The short review is that this is a really great read, but no it’s not the best Culture book ever written (we’re still partial to Consider Phelbas and Player of Games)

As is always the case with Culture books, Banks challenges us with new ideas and situations – and Surface Detail is no exception.

The big new ideas in this book are the Intagliate – those who are tattooed and then owned as a life debt if their families become indebted…then of course the deeper look into the different divisions of Contact, Quietus and Restoria (though both are just Special Circumstances fronts right?)

The basic plotline is similar to Matter in a way (which we recently reviewed) where there is a woman coming back to her home planet to settle a score with a murderer. Also as is the case with matter the not-quite equiv tech society is also trying to reach beyond it’s own limits which draws in a wider conflict.

The deeper discussion here is about the ‘Hells’ and what is Real and what isn’t which is kind of fun.

The plots and subplots which all coalesce in the end is also a standard Banks touch that Surface Detail employs.

Having the tattoo – the same thing thing that imprisoned our heroine Lededje – become the instrument of her tormentors death was a really great angle too.

The new Abominator class of ship was also really cool and the Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints is easily our fav Culture ship-type – irreverent and totally awesome as a whole Armada in an ellipsoid shape.

That said, this book could have been 100 pages fewer and it would have read better. Banks (lately) has a bad tendency to over-write and Surface Detail is definitely guilty of being (moderately over-written).

As always though the final page has a surprise and this one wasn’t quite as spectacular as some of our favorite Culture books – though it brought us right back to one of our all time favs – Use of Weapons (we still get chills when we think about the chair made of bones…).

Zakalwe ? REALLY?

We just didn’t see that coming at all. Not that it’s a major twist, but still a nice touch for Culture fans.

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, the sentient robotic Cylons, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a young, talented fighter pilot, William Adama (Luke Pasqualino), finds himself assigned to one of the most powerful Battlestars in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. Full of ambition and in pursuit of the intense action that the Cylon war promises, Adama quickly find himself at odds with Coker (Ben Cotton), the battle-weary officer to whom he reports. With 47 days left in his tour of duty, Coker desires an end to battle just as much as Adama craves the start of it. Though they clash at first, the two men forge an unlikely bond when a routine mission turns dangerous and becomes a pivotal one for the desperate fleet.

Joining Pasqualino and Cotton in the cast is Lili Bordan, who will play Dr. Beka Kelly, a Ph.D. who worked for Graystone Industries that created the Cylon robots. Currently assigned to a secret military mission, Beka and Adama quickly establish a rapport.

From the award-winning producers of Battlestar Galactica, this new action-packed chapter of the BSG canon was written by Michael Taylor form a story by David Eick, Taylor and Bradley Thompson & David Weddle and directed by Jonas Pate. David Eick, Jonas Pate and Michael Taylor will serve as executive producers.

It’s hard to believe that over the course of 51 issues (50 regular series and 1 of War) that Cade Skywalker had NEVER

NEVER

Met Admiral Gar Stazi before. That’s shocking.

But it’s great that they finally have – and oh yeah Darth Krayt should be shaking in his big Sith boots.

Cade is Sith Killing Machine and he’s unstoppable now.

But his mom is stoppable – Is She Dead now? Somehow we don’t think so and it’s now likely that she’ll move full time to helping her son the Galactic Alliance and Roan Fel…

Speaking of Roan Fel – aside from running away from Sith — what’s up with him? He’s the weak link of the bunch. Not the ultra-dude that Cade is, not the General like Gar Stazi and not the maniac that Krayt is now becomming either.

All in all, this issue continues to remind us why Star Wars Legacy is the best comic book title ever produced by Dark Horse.
This post first appeared on our sister site ShowMeSciFiComics.com

The artwork is inconsistent with very different renditions of Vader throughout, same goes for the troopers. This isn’t the type of art that we’re used to seeing from Dark Horse – we’re used to seeing much better.

The overall story is kinda weak too.

But there is a at least one great set of panels – when we see Vader out of his full gear/helmet going through his regular maintenance – that’s cool.

“Paying homage to 10 seasons is no small task, and wrapping up each character and story arc has been extremely important to everyone involved in the show,” said executive producers Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders in a statement. “We’re excited to be able to make the final moments of SMALLVILLE a television event, as the character we’ve grown up with makes his legendary transformation.”

The Boy Behind Volkswagen’s Mini-Vader, Max Page, age 6 – admitted in an interview that he had never seen Star Wars.

I guess someone explained it to him and he figured it out… check out the link below to the video interview with Max..and if you’ve been sleeping under a rock..below that we’ve got the video that has now made him famous.

This book is about two things, Ben Sisko and Romulus, with a side of Tzenkethi for good measure.

The Sisko part bothered us — ALOT. This book portrayed the Emissary as a man that was able to walk out on his family. No it didn’t make sense to us either, though the author tried (unsuccessfully) to convince us otherwise.

In general the characterization and writing about Sisko was just wrong and out of character.

In contrast, the plotting with developments in the Romulan Star and Imperial State is brilliant. The tense drama was astounding and we really didn’t quite know how it would end. The manipulation of the Tzenkethi to create a new Praetor was really slick.

The overall broader tactical and strategic nature of the Typhon Pact after this is really quite different isn’t it? We’ve got a united Romulus under a non-militant Praetor and we’ve got Sela (remember her?) as the head of the T’al Sheare -neat.

A decent read and one that really extends the Typhon Pact storyline, we can hardly wait until we read the next book in this (so far) really great series.

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